External orthopedic fixation devices are commonly used in the treatment of limb injuries and deformations including skeletal fractures, soft tissue injuries, delayed union of skeletal bones resulting from slow healing, non-union of skeletal bones involving unhealed bones, mal-union of bones resulting from the improper healing of broken or fractured bones, congenital deformities resulting from bones developing in a mal-position, and bone widening or twisting. Medical procedures involving external orthopedic fixation devices include limb lengthening, deformity correction, and the treatment of fractures, mal-unions, non-unions, and bone defects. Typically, external fixator systems may be placed on a subject's (e.g., a human or another vertebrate animal) affected limb by a medical professional to set the impacted bones or bone fragments in a desired position. The fixator systems may be adjusted throughout the treatment process in order to set and maintain the bones in a desired position. However, the known fixator systems are often large and unwieldy, making it difficult to transport, store, and then affix to a subject.
Therefore, it is desirable to have an external fixator system that may be readily collapsed or erected to allow the system to be more easily fitted to a patient's limb and for adjustment of the fixator system without the need to remove the system from the patient's limb.